History
The Founding Long ago, this world was one of tumultuous and chaotic forces. Naught but unbridled fires, and churning, sawlike rock made up its substance. Through the ashen skies of Creation Primordial, the gods came from beyond the ether, new and formless. Looking upon this roiling realm, they saw potential for great beauty, great strength, and the chance to learn their own place in creation. Thus, divine hands formed the First Children. First created were the elves, created with physical grace reflecting the gods' own divinity, to walk the verdant lands and know the music of the blue skies. A second creation was wrought-the dwarves, a hearty people intent on taming the land, filled with the craft and invention of the divinity beyond the ashen void. A third people were given life; the humans, endowed with hearts of passion that burned as brightly as their spans of life were short, filled with the celebration and laughter of the hands creating them. Other creations followed as the many races of Yel'Celora were given form from the boundless inspiration the protean gods expressed. These Children of Creation walked the land, and as their knowledge grew they attempted to build. But the land was fierce and treacherous, and the children were largely dashed and consumed by the elements. Sorrow filled the hearts of the gods while these first races continued to struggle against a land that did not want them. The Children looked to their creators for guidance and protection. The gods gave to them gifts, lending their own power to their children to create and shape the world around them; these were the first divine magics. Thus, the various peoples began to learn how to bend the angry earth to their will: to temper the fires that burst through, to tame the floods that threatened their abundance, and to foster seedling into fruit and beast into meal. Language became commonplace, culture was born, and governance replaced anarchy. The realm grew quieter, the people expanded, and new races were given form and life. As culture grew, and the people further understood the world around them, they too looked up to their Creators and gave them worship, gave them form, gave them title, and purpose. But this realm did not wish to be tamed. Quaking cliffs roared in defiance. Seas swelled and swallowed. Flames erupted from underneath the lands. Beneath the elements, unknown to the Creators beyond the ashen skies, lived the ancient beings who had already taken this world as their home. The Primordials, the very four that was used to create the Realm, rose from their unseen domain to sunder the land once more. The gods watched as their children—their joy—were largely dashed against the broken rock or fed to formless terrors unleashed in the wake of the destruction. Demonic entities spilled from the umbra of the Abyss to feast on the carnage, called forth by the violence and released to pick the carrion clean. Some gods were so full of grief and anger they wished to abandon this world for another, trying to convince their divine kindred to join the Primordials in reclaiming the realm for chaos so they could move on to start anew. Others of the Creators wished to remain and subdue these native Primordials, to tame the land for the sake of their creation and joy. This caused a divide among the gods. Some left the family of the Creators to give into madness, joining their song and sword to that of chaos and destruction, taking and twisting their children in the image of their intent. Celestial sentinels locked into war with the chaotic forces of the Abyss fell to hate and tyranny, forging the Hells under a fallen angel now claiming lordship. The remaining Creators, wishing to salvage their home, their creations, and their realized selves, were forced to take up arms and learn new methods of protection to defend the faithful among their creations. They organized their followers and taught them how to draw from the very powers of creation: to build, to change, and to destroy, all for themselves and without the aid of divine power. Creation learned to defend itself through practices such as alchemy or by autonomously bending the very fabrics of existence, though not on the scale of the gods’ works. With these newly granted capabilities, the good children drove away their traitorous kin, banished the Mad Gods to their own prison-like planes, and ultimately destroyed the Primordials while scattering the chaotic elements back to their own planes of existence just outside of this one. Peace finally blanketed the world for the first time since creation, and the first real civilization took root and grew into a grand city called I'Enna (The First) The Age of Arcana Over time, some of the peoples grew arrogant. Seeing their arcane gifts as proof the gods held no sway over their fate, some began to believe that, with enough understanding, they could become as powerful as the gods themselves. As such, many began to shun faith for their own pursuits. Though this hurt and surprised the gods, they understood the willfulness of their creation and endured out of love and hope for redemption. Great kingdoms sprang up. Castles were built in a day, accelerated by the arcanists’ newfound power. Even though magic could be used to complete the most difficult tasks with hitherto unknown speed, magic-users strove always to innovate. As mages practiced and perfected their powers of creation, they soon unlocked the secrets of life itself, giving birth to wondrous, dangerous new forms of life and power. The advent of the arcane seemed to be the key to a bountiful age of plenty, but also proved to threaten it, as prosperity soon gave way to greed. Petty squabbles erupted over resources and wealth among the elite, while the rumor of immortality through perfected arcanum began to drive the greatest mages wild with a lust for power unending. One powerful archmage, Ikhran Naharis, driven by his hunger, he sought the guidance and power of the Mad gods, rending open the gates of their prisons and releasing them into the mortal world. This started the era known in history as "Conjunction of the Spheres" Conjunction of the Spheres In their imprisonment, the gods of Hatred and Despair twisted their prison into their own image, spawning unthinkable horrors that lived only to transform peace into suffering, and righteousness into arrogance and greed. The Hells and the Abyss began to push their way into Creation. The Mad Gods and their hateful children, unbanished and allowed re-entry into the Creation that had exiled them, discovered the world unspoiled, save for the avarice of mortals. The urge to ruin was now replaced with the desire to dominate, and the Mad Gods turned their sights first to the Archmage Ikhran who freed them, making him their first thrall. The Mad Gods released their offspring, scattered across the world, and made a new world out of Yel'Celora. In this world of evil, where the twisted power of the lower planes seeped into this world, the lords of darkness tainted the minds of mortals, hungrily welcoming those who had forgotten their way home, offering great promises and boons to hearts easily swayed. These poisonous seeds found fertile ground in the hearts of mortals obsessed with the unlimited power of the arcane. With a legion of the damned behind them, the Mad Gods soon made their presence known to the world with an assualt on I'Enna itself. Though much of the city was reduced to rubble, I'Enna weathered the initial assault, saved by the intervention of the gods. The Creator gods descended to trade blows with their former brethren. The battle between divinity and mortalkind, heroes and demons raged ceaselessly for twenty days and nights until the dark forces, their surprise attack thwarted, were forced to retreat. Evil was repulsed momentarily, but with the revelation of such a terrible foe, a dangerous arcane arms race began. Trust was shattered indefinitely: If mortals could fall under the sway of the Mad Gods, who was an ally? If ruin like this could be unleashed under the watchful eyes of divinity, how were they relevant? Not trusting any but themselves, the self-interested and singular humans beat their instruments of celebration into instruments of incredible power: alchemically and magically enchanced humans, Witchers, created spesifically to fight the Mad Gods creations, were brought into the light. The dwarves’ fascination with rock and earth turned toward isolation as they burrowed further into the mountains, using their divine gifts to animate legions of autonomous golems to protect their ancestral halls. Elves used their understanding of creation’s beauty and intricacies to weave spells of unimaginable destructive force, the likes of which Yel'Celora had never seen before. For the first time since the Primordials, the focus of magic was warfare. The gods themselves agreed to join their children on the field of battle, descending from the heavens to take up arms once more for the war now referred to as “The Great Calamity.” The Great Calamity No record remains of the terrible war that followed, but its effects are still felt today. The sheer magnitude of the energies unleashed in the ensuing battles of gods and mortals alike was enough to fray the boundaries holding back the elemental chaos, spilling unbridled destruction into the world. It completely rearranged the known flow of magical ley energy across Yel'Celora. The dark rule of the Mad Gods was brought to ruin, but the conflict devastated Yel'Celoras' peoples, reducing most cities to ash, inspiring in many a desire to flee from this plane of existence entirely. So great was the loss of life during the war that historians believe no more than a third of Yel'Celoras' population survived, leaving the only remaining bastion of civilization: the First City itself, I'Enna. The world entered a long, dark period of recovery, when history had to be recovered and purpose had to be restored. The Mad Gods were banished once more to their realms of deception and hate, but the threat of their return weighed heavily on the world. The Creation Deities felt that their involvement in mortal conflict was to blame for the cataclysmic damage inflicted upon Yel'Celora. They knew that while the divine gateways were left open, the prison planes that held the banished Mad ones would remain imperfect and temporary. Thus, in hopes of ensuring such ruin would not befall Yel'Celora again, they left their children to fend for themselves within and beyond the walls of I'Enna. The Creation Deities returned to their own realms, dragging both Mad and Abomination with them and sealing the pathways to the mortal realm behind them with the Divine Gate. Only in this way could they prevent their corrupted brethren from physically returning to the material plane. Sadly, for the Creation Deities, this action also carried with it a self-imposed sentence of exile. They would henceforth never be allowed to visit Creation. The exile of the gods is known by many names: "The Second Spark" for those who study the arcane; "The Penance" for those who seek closeness to their gods; but the most common name for this time of warfare and seperation is "Disjunciton of the Spheres," and it marked the end of the Age of Arcana. Much time has passed since, and the world has been reborn once again. The gods still exhibit their influence and guidance from beyond the Divine Gate, bestowing their knowledge and power to their most devout worshippers, but the path of mortals is now their own to make. New cities, kingdoms, and cultures have retaken the world, built over the ashes of the old. New songs fill the air, and the hope of a brighter future drives people day after day, while buried ruins and forgotten relics remind all people of a darker time of mistakes that should never be repeated. The History of Yel'Celora Following the creation, and subsequent razing, of Yel'Celora, a post-Disjunction of the Spheres world was now left to rise from the ashes and begin a new era. While every region has their own rebirth since the terrible destruction of the Great Calamity, the continent that now bears the name of this setting shall remain the focus. Category:History